Category Archives: American Express

Why You Shouldn’t Get the 75k Membership Rewards Business Gold Rewards Card (And Why You Should)

Posted on May 15, 2013 by | 10 Comments

Last week, American Express (possibly accidentally) offered its Business Gold Rewards Card with a 75k Membership Rewards sign up bonus after only $5k in spending in the first three months.

That’s pretty incredible because:

  • Usually the card has no sign up bonus.
  • It had been offering only 50k Membership Rewards after $5k in spending.
  • Normally when it offers 75k Membership Rewards, it does so for only one or two days and requires $10k in spending to unlock the bonus.

That deal died, but two Business Gold offers have risen in its stead. Which is right for you?

Continue reading →

→ 10 Comments

Posted in American Express

Tagged

Can You Get the 45k Delta Miles Offer

Posted on May 2, 2013 by | 18 Comments

The standard offer for the Gold Delta SkyMiles personal card is 30,000 bonus SkyMiles after spending $500 in three months. While the miles bonus isn’t eye popping, the spending requirement is very low compared to competitors’ cards, so I have recommended that very low spenders get a Delta personal and business card before.

But for people who have higher spending levels, the low minimum spending requirement is a not a benefit. They would prefer more bonus miles in exchange for a higher spending requirement.

Enter CARDMATCH from creditcards.com. Somehow CARDMATCH has worked out a deal to get exclusive targeted offers from American Express. One of the main ones that people are reporting is a 45,000 SkyMile offer from American Express.

The process to see if you’re eligible for the 45,000 mile offer is simple.

Continue reading →

→ 18 Comments

Posted in American Express, Delta

Tagged ,

Charlie’s First Cards: Getting the Cards

Posted on April 10, 2013 by | 9 Comments

Charlie contacted me wanting to share his experiences with applying for his first rewards cards, hoping it would be useful for other newbies. Each person’s ideal cards are different. Charlie had to convince a skeptical spouse and had unique goals for his upcoming travel. For comparison, see how this shaped his card choices differently than Rookie Alli’s.

Charlie is a software developer and consultant, now mostly retired, in Poulsbo, Washington. He writes about testing and test-driven development at It’s the Tests.

Previously: Charlie’s First Cards: Planning

In my previous post, I described how my wife and I came up with a plan to apply for nine cards, six of them in my name and three in hers. For easy reference, here are the six cards I was applying for:

And here are the three we selected for my wife:

Applying for My Cards
As the day approached, I got all my links ready and made sure I had the information I would need handy. After some thought and a bit of research on how the credit checks would work, I decided to apply for my own cards all on one day and wait to see the result before applying for my wife’s cards. That way, if I were turned down for any cards, we could try again in my wife’s name. As it turned out, that wasn’t necessary, but it didn’t do any harm either.

The application process turned out to be fairly easy. I applied for cards in the order of their importance to me, grouping them by bank.

I started with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, filling out the online application and receiving an immediate approval.

Congratulations! Your application has been approved.You will receive your new card and your Cardmember Agreement within 7-10 business
days. When your card arrives, simply call the toll-free number provided to confirm receipt.Your new account has a credit line of $XXXXX. If this does not meet your needs, please discuss available credit line options with our CustomerService Specialist when you call to confirm receipt of your card.

This seemed like a really good start after only 15 minutes or so!

My next application was for the Chase Ink Bold card. I filled out the application, using my Employee Identification Number (EIN), which I have because my business is an LLC. If you are doing business under your own name, you can just use your Social Security number.

This application didn’t go quite so well as the first, although I wasn’t turned down flat.

Thank you for applying. Your application requires further review before making a decision.
Here’s what you can expect:

  • Our goal is to notify you in writing within 10 days; however, in some circumstances it may take up to 30 days.
  • If you are approved, you will receive your card and other important information in the mail.
  • Please do not resubmit this application.

From reading this blog, I knew not to wait for them to contact me. I immediately called the reconsideration line as recommended in Scott’s Free First Class Next Month: Best Practices for Your First Cards post.

The agent who took my call verified my identity and asked me a few questions that were already on the application. He was very friendly in his approach and wanted to know why I was looking for this card in addition to the Chase Sapphire. I explained that I always kept my personal and business expenses separate, which seemed satisfactory. I told him I had held a Citi-Business card for many years, but that I now wanted a card that would earn rewards. I picked Chase because the cards sounded terrific and because I already had a relationship with them–I have checking and savings accounts at their bank. He wanted to be sure that I understood the Ink Bold is a month-to-month charge card, and I told him that I pay my balance at the end of the month anyway and didn’t need any more extended credit at the moment.

Finally, he got to the point. He explained that he was a bit puzzled that I had so little credit history. I repeated some of my history, as told in my first post, how I had paid off my mortgage and loans a few years back and had not been using personal credit very much for the past few years. I also pointed out my excellent history with Citi, reflected in my business credit report. He was aware of this but told me that they mostly go on personal credit history for a small business like mine. This was something I had not realized, so I’ll keep it in mind from now on.

He asked me again about how much I would use the card. By this time, I could see I was going to be approved, so I explained that I’m about to go on a trip to Europe and will have business expenses. I wanted–I told him–to make sure that the card had a sufficiently high limit that I wasn’t forced to make payments in the middle of the month. He went off the line for a while and then came back with an approval. The limit was more than I had asked for and he told me that the Ink Bold has a “flexible limit” so I could exceed it by a pretty large amount without any penalty. That’s important to me, since this is a card I actually want to use.

At this point I was two for two and feeling pretty cocky. I moved on to the Barclay’s cards and filled out applications for both the US Airways Premier World MasterCard and the US Airways Business MasterCard.

Both of them came back with the same result…

Here’s where I discovered one mistake I had made. I did my application on a Friday afternoon on the west coast. It turned out to be too late to talk to Barclay’s, whose credit application department seems to keep limited hours as compared to the other banks I dealt with. I wouldn’t be able to talk with them until Monday.

With my spirits only slightly dampened, I moved on to the American Express applications. I filled out the application for the Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express and was approved right away.

But when I applied for the Gold Delta SkyMiles Business Card from American Express I saw this notice

I called the number right away. The agent I spoke to told me that the application had been automatically put in a pending status because I was applying for more than one card. I explained that I was applying for two different products but he told me that anyone applying for two Delta cards at the same time would have the second application held up “Sometimes,” he said, “people just submit the same application twice.” He gave me the date–three or four business days ahead–when I could call back for a decision.

Naturally, I immediately called back, using the reconsideration number this time rather than the one on the notice. A different agent told me the same thing and even added that “there was no other reason my application was being delayed.” I took that as a positive sign.

Final result at the end of the day: three applications approved and three pending.

More Calls to Make
On Monday morning I received an email telling me I had been approved for the US Airways Premier World MasterCard, making it four approvals and two more pending.

I next called the Barclay’s reconsideration line, knowing they were back in the office. While the Chase and AMEX agents I spoke with were quite helpful and friendly, I found the Barclay’s guy to have a bit of an attitude. Like the others, he brought up my “thin” credit history and mentioned that I had no track record at all with Barclay’s. He told me they couldn’t give me any more credit, having just approved me for a personal card. The fact that this was for my business didn’t hold any water for him.

I knew that my next step should be to ask them to move some credit from the brand new card to the business card, but I decided to just thank this guy and get off the line. I spent a few minutes thinking about what to do next. One option would be to call back and talk to a different agent. But frankly, I was aggravated and decided I no longer wanted to pay $79 to get these extra miles. From what I have read, I should be able to repeat my successful personal application in 91 days. If the no-fee link still works, this will be a much better deal. Suddenly I realized I was already planning my next cards. That made me smile.

On Thursday of that week, it was time to call about my Gold Delta SkyMiles Business Card from American Express and find out if it was approved. That call was routine. Just a few questions that called for the same information as the initial application and I was approved.

Getting My Wife’s Cards
The next day, I sat down to make the three remaining applications on my wife’s behalf, with her standing by in case I needed any extra information from her. Two of the cards were identical to applications I had already made and they went the same way. Her Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express was immediately approved and the US Airways Premier World MasterCard was left pending. Now feeling like quite the expert, I told her she would get an approval email in a few days–which, in fact, she did!

The United MileagePlus Explorer Visa application was a new one for me, but no more difficult to fill out than the others. I made sure to add an authorized user–myself–in order to get an extra 5,000 miles. The application was immediately approved.

Recap
I applied for nine cards for me and my wife and was approved for eight of them. My own applications were all done in one day and my wife’s on a separate day about a week later. Four cards were approved instantly two a few days later and two after talking to an agent–although only one conversation really got into any detail.

After spending $12,000 on these cards in the next three months, we will have 98,000 Ultimate Rewards, 70,000 Dividend Miles, 153,000 SkyMiles and 36,000 United miles.

That’s enough for quite a bit of travel for two people domestically or a few big international trips.

In the process, I learned a few things that will help me the next time.

Next week I’m going to beg Charlie to talk about getting the cards, tracking his spending, and setting up tracking for his annual fees.

→ 9 Comments

Posted in American Express, Barclay's, Delta, United, US Airways

Tagged , , , ,

Charlie’s First Cards: Planning

Posted on April 9, 2013 by | 9 Comments

Charlie contacted me wanting to share his experiences with his first credit card applications, hoping it would be useful for other newbies. Each person’s ideal cards are different. Charlie had to convince a skeptical spouse and had unique goals for his upcoming travel. For comparison, see how this shaped his card choices differently than Rookie Alli’s.

Charlie is a software developer and consultant, now mostly retired, in Poulsbo, Washington. He writes about testing and test-driven development at It’s the Tests.

After following Scott’s Free First Class Next Month posts over the past month or so, I finally got organized to get my first rewards cards. This post describes what I did, how I did it and what I learned. But first, I guess an introduction is in order.

Introduction

I’m Charlie. My wife and I are in our 70s and are (mostly) retired. In the past, we had various mortgages, car loans, and credit cards. Between us, we have paid for four houses and half a dozen cars. But a bit over 20 years ago, we simplified our lives quite a bit. We generally have not been using credit. We now have one personal credit card between us, and I have a card for my consulting business. We pay our balance off every month.

You might imagine that a bank would consider someone like me as a good risk. Well, although I eventually got almost all the cards I wanted, it turns out that I have what they call a “thin” credit file. Essentially, to their credit departments, I don’t look much different from somebody just getting started financially. As you will see, I had to deal with this in one reconsideration call.

Planning

While I did most of the research and applied for most of the cards, this was a family effort. So the first thing I had to do was to convince my wife that applying for eight or nine credit cards was not completely insane! We talked about it several times. We discussed the impact it could have on our credit scores at length and took a lot of time to figure out how we would manage the required minimum spending requirements on all those cards. Eventually, Phyllis not only agreed but even began contributing her own ideas. That’s when I knew we could make it work.

Our talks also covered what my wife was willing to do in the process. She didn’t want to make calls to reconsideration lines or to attempt to negotiate in any way with the issuing banks, so we agreed that I would do it where necessary. She didn’t want to have to justify having a business card, so we decided to avoid those in her applications.

We were looking for a number of things in selecting the cards:

  1. Good signup bonuses that we could use for our travels. Mostly, this has been to Europe, but South America and New Zealand are on our horizon as well.
  2. One business and one personal card that could be used abroad without paying foreign transaction fees. This was particularly important because we’ll be making some of the required spending to earn bonuses while traveling in May and June. Some of the travel can be treated as a business expense, so a separate business card will make things easier.
  3. We wanted to earn a mix of airline miles and transferable points, so we could “top up” our airline accounts when we need to.
  4. I wanted to include a solid business card I’d be happy to keep using. This will replace my current Citi card, which doesn’t earn miles.
  5. Of course, we wanted to be able to earn good bonuses for the things we typically buy.
  6. Finally, since we already have miles with United and Delta, we decided to aim for at least one card for each of those airlines.

The Cards

After a lot of research–much of it right on this blog–I ended up with this list of cards:

For me: Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, Delta personal, Delta business, US Airways personal and US Airways business.

For her: United MileagePlus Explorer, Delta personal, US Airways personal

1. Chase Sapphire Preferred

This will be one of my two cards with no foreign transaction fee, a big savings on purchases made while traveling out of the country and even on certain online purchases, like paid tickets on some European airlines.

It gives us 40,000 Ultimate Rewards after spending $3,000 in 3 months. We plan to hang on to those and use them to “top up” our airline miles when we need more miles to buy a ticket. We’ll also use this for a lot of our paid travel and for eating out in order to earn double points–at least when no better deal is available.

  • 40k Ultimate Rewards after $3,000 in purchases in 3 months
  • Ultimate Rewards transfer 1:1 to United, Korean, British Airways, Southwest, Marriott, Priority Club, Virgin Atlantic and more
  • 2 points per dollar on travel and dining at restaurants
  • 7% annual (calendar year) dividend on points earned from purchases
  • No foreign transaction fee
  • Human agent answers number on back of card
  • No annual fee for the first year, $95 thereafter

2. Chase Ink Bold

This card gives us 50,000 Ultimate rewards after spending $5,000 in 3 months. It’s a charge card–the balance must be paid off each month–but that’s what we already do with all our bills, so no problem. I expect the Ink Bold to become my main business card. I’ll be able to put my telephone and internet on this card as well as all office supplies we buy. Like the Sapphire Preferred card, it has no foreign transaction fees, so these two cards will get a lot of use when I’m in Europe in May and June.

  • 50k Ultimate Rewards after spending $5,000 in the first three months
  • Ultimate Rewards transfer 1:1 to United, Korean, British Airways, Southwest, Marriott, Priority Club, and more
  • 5X points on the first $50,000 spent annually at office supply stores, and on cellular phone, landline, internet, and cable TV services
  • 2x points on the first $50,000 spent annually at gas stations and hotel accomodations purchased directly from the hotel
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • No annual fee for first year, $95 thereafter

3. United MileagePlus Explorer Visa

With the Sapphire and Ink Bold cards, I can’t apply for anything more from Chase, so my wife will apply for the United MileagePlus Explorer card. We already have United accounts with miles–earned the hard way–accumulated, although we have pretty much emptied them to buy tickets for this coming trip. Getting this card will add 35,000 miles to her account.

  • 30,000 United miles after $1,000 in spending in the first three months
  • 5,000 extra United miles when you add another cardholder to the account
  • First Checked Bag Free on United Flights
  • Two United Club Passes annually
  • no annual fee the first year, then $95 thereafter

4. Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card and Gold Delta SkyMiles Business Card from American Express

Although Delta miles are often harder to use than United miles, we’ve gotten some good use out of them in the past and both of us have existing Delta balances. Originally, I planned to apply for the 30,000 mile offer that has been around for a while: 30,000 SkyMiles after spending $500 over three months. But only a few days before I was scheduled to do my applications, my wife received a targeted offer from Delta for a better deal. I got the same offer the next day.

The new offer came with a bonus of 50,000 miles after spending $1,000 in the first three months and seemed too good to pass up. In fact, so good that we now plan to get three cards–personal and business cards for me and a personal card for my wife–for a total of 150,000 Delta miles. Each card’s offer was:

  • 50,000 bonus miles after spending $1,000 in the first three months
  • Double miles on Delta purchases
  • Priority boarding
  • One free checked bag on Delta flights
  • Delta Sky Club access for $25
  • 20% statement credit for inflight purchases

Note: The above link works the first time you use it. When I tried to go back to the page to check the link for this article, all I saw was a screen thanking me for applying for the card. I used a different computer to verify the link. Most likely, I could have cleared my cache and cookies to the same affect. If you decide to apply for both a personal and a business card, don’t close the initial window. Instead, either open the application link in a new window or use your browser back button to return to the initial screen after the first application. Here’s the link to see if you get a targeted offer.

 

5. US Airways Premier World MasterCard

Since we didn’t have anything from Barclay’s and since this card gives you 35,000 miles on first use, we added them to the mix as well. We’ll each get one. Of course, if we don’t use them right away, we’re anticipating that they will eventually change into American miles, which I plan to start collecting soon!

  • 35,000 US Airways Dividend Miles after first purchase
  • 5,000 mile discount on all awards operated entirely by US Airways
  • 10,000 anniversary miles each year, upon paying the annual fee
  • Two $99 companion passes annually
  • First Class Check In
  • Zone 2 Priority Boarding
  • One Complimentary US Airways Club Pass Annually
  • 2 miles per dollar on US Airways purchases
  • $89 annual fee, waived the first year

Note: The link and deal above is better than the current US Airways deal, but it could stop working at any time! The current offer only gives 30,000 miles and doesn’t waive the fee the first year. There is no mention of the 10,000 mile anniversary bonus either.

6. US Airways Business MasterCard

The US Airways business card isn’t really all that attractive, but it does allow me to essentially buy 25,000 miles for $79. If approved, that would bring my US Airways total up to 60,000 miles.

  • 25,000 US Airways Dividend Miles after first purchase
  • One Complimentary US Airways Club Pass Annually
  • 2 miles per dollar on US Airways purchases
  • $79 annual fee

If we are approved for these nine cards, we will earn 370,000 bonus miles and points after spending $12,000 in three months. That’s a lot, but we’ve examined our upcoming expenses and we think we’ll do it pretty readily, provided we get into the habit of paying by credit card whenever possible. With 2X and 5X earnings in some categories, I expect that amount will earn us 20,000 miles over the three months, bringing our total up to 390,000 miles.

Next time, I’ll write about the application process and how it worked out.

Recap

After some careful thinking–and family discussion–about our goals for these cards, my wife and I picked out nine cards to apply for:

After spending $12,000 over the next three months, we expect to accumulate about 400,000 miles and points in our accounts.

Concluded in Charlie’s First Cards: Getting the Cards

→ 9 Comments

Posted in American Express, Barclay's, Delta, United, US Airways

Tagged , ,

Anatomy of an Award: Membership Rewards to Argentina

Posted on April 2, 2013 by | 8 Comments

I recently booked a family of four an economy award from Miami to Buenos Aires with their Membership Rewards. It was an interesting award that I think demonstrates the complexities and fun of booking with American Express points.

I won’t talk about that award specifically, but I’ll use it as a jumping off point for discussion since it illustrates a typical Memberhip Rewards situation. Imagine you have a family of four trying for an economy roundtrip from Miami to Buenos Aires for two weeks in October with 300k Membership Rewards.

Membership Rewards are awesome because they can be transferred to any of the three airline alliances, so you can use them to book on almost any airline in the world.

But Membership Rewards are frustrating because they transfer to programs with which you may be unfamiliar like ANA or programs with major drawbacks like British Airways’ fuel surcharges.

I would approach an award like this looking first at the flying options, then at the transfer options. I know if I could find award space, I can probably find a transfer partner with access to that space. And if I find several ways to get to Buenos Aires, I cancompare the transfer options to see which is the best deal with Membership Rewards.

From checking the Buenos Aires international airport’s (EZE) wikipedia page, I know there are direct flights to/from Miami on American, LAN, and Aerolineas Argentinas. Of course, United and Delta also fly to Buenos Aires from their hubs.

Aerolineas Argentinas

Aerolineas Argentinas is the state-owned flag carrier of Argentina. I haven’t heard too many kind words about it, but it does have a direct flight from Miami to Buenos Aires. The best way to search for the space is on ExpertFlyer.

ExpertFlyer only displays economy award space on the airline. The space that Aerolineas’ SkyTeam partners like Delta have access to is T class space.

Aerolineas Argentinas flies twice daily between Miami and Buenos Aires–its only US route–once in the morning and one redeye. Up to seven seats are widely available on each!

The return is also wide open.

This was a promising start!

American

American has direct flights from Miami to Buenos Aires also. The best place to check for space on those flights is aa.com.

I can look at the whole month of October in just a few seconds with AA’s awesome calendar view. Unfortunately there is no MileSAAver outbound space–the low-miles-price space open to partners– in October, though there is some space on return flights.

Outbound: No Saver Space

Return: Some Saver Space

LAN

LAN is another oneworld airline with direct flights from Miami to Buenos Aires. I go to ba.com to check for LAN space to Buenos Aires, since aa.com doesn’t display LAN space.

I ca’t find any LAN space on ba.com, though it did pick up the same American Airlines space I’d seen on aa.com.

ba.com not finding any LAN space

…but it did find the same space on American Airlines

Delta

Yes, it seemed like a complete longshot that Delta would have space for four from Miami to Atlanta to Buenos Aires at the low-miles-price because Delta has putrid availability to South America, but I checked anyway.

Green shows low-miles-price itineraries. There actually are some returns possible.

While oneway tickets with Delta miles are a huge mistake since Delta charges the roundtrip price for all awards even oneways, I kept the returns in mind because AMEX has some transfer partners like Flying Blue that can be used to book oneway Delta awards reasonably.

United, TACA, Copa

The final place I checked was united.com to see what United, Copa, or TACA award space there was that I could snag with a transfer to a Star Alliance partner.

Green and yellow days have an award with four economy seats.

I found a few more possible awards to add to the bounty.

Search Results

I found space in both direction on Aerolineas Argentinas’ two daily flights. I found space in both directions on connecting United and Copa (via Panama) flights. I found return space on American Airlines and Delta, but no outbound space. I found no space on LAN.

Transfer Options

Delta

We can transfer Membership Rewards to Delta to book the Aerolineas Argentinas space and/or the Delta space. Delta charges 60,000 miles roundtrip to Argentina in economy class whether you fly it or one of its SkyTeam partners like Aerolineas Argentinas.

Although Delta does charge fuel surcharges for awards on a lot of its partners, it does not collect fuel surcharges on Aerolineas redemptions.

That means a transfer to Delta would mean the transfer of 240,000 Membership Rewards to 240,000 Delta miles. American Express charges $7 per 10,000 miles transferred to US-based airlines, with a maximum charge of $99, This transfer would incur that $99 charge. The award itself would have government taxes of around $75 per person, meaning a total cost of 240,000 Membership Rewards and approximately $400 for four people.

In return for that outlay, the family could get direct flights in each direction or could sub a one-stop itinerary on Delta on the return if they really didn’t want to fly Aerolineas Argentinas.

Flying Blue

Air France’s frequent flyer program, Flying Blue, is not always the best option because it levies heavy surcharges on several partners. But it doesn’t levy surcharges on Delta or Aerolineas Argentinas. And it’s price from the US to Argentina is 25,000 miles each way.

I’m not sure why the taxes collected exceed those collected by Delta by $15 per person, but that’s a minor concern. Flying Blue costs 25,000 miles each way, and it can be used to book oneways, which is a far better deal than Delta’s 60k miles roundtrip, which is the price whether you book oneways or roundtrips.

That means for 200k Membership Rewards and $360, a family of four could get on the same flights as with Delta miles: Delta and Aerolineas Argentinas flights.

British Airways

We can transfer Membership Rewards to British Airways Avios, but that would only enable booking the return leg in this case. Avios can be used to book American or LAN flights. We found only space on American, and only on the return.

The good news is that it’s only 25,000 Avios from Buenos Aires to Miami.

That means the return would be 100k Membership Rewards and $300.

ANA

I recently sang the praises of All Nippon Airways as a Membership Rewards transfer partner. ANA has a distance based award chart. You add up the distance of all the segments and see how many miles that trip will cost. Here is the economy chart.

Miami to Houston to Buenos Aires roundtrip is just over 12,000 miles. That works out 60,000 ANA miles (60,000 Membership Rewards) roundtrip. That’s not fantastic or awful.

But Miami to Panama to Buenos Aires is under 9,000 miles, meaning it is only 43,000 ANA miles roundtrip. That’s the lowest miles total we’ve seen.

image from gcmap.com

In neither case would there be fuel surcharges. ANA never charges fuel surcharges on United or US Airways flights, and Copa doesn’t collect fuel surcharges on this routing.

No fuel surcharges on Copa from Miami to Buenos Aires, so ANA won’t collect any.

That means ANA miles used to fly Copa would be 172k Membership Rewards and about $480 in taxes.

Transfer Options Summary

To summarize:

  • All the options here receive 1:1 transfers from Membership Rewards and incur only government taxes–no fuel surcharges.
  • Transferring to Delta is a bad idea. Why pay 60k Membership Rewards for a roundtrip when the same flights are 25k each way via Flying Blue? Total: 240k + $400
  • ANA is the cheapest option overall at 43k roundtrip if we route through Panama on Copa. Total: 172k + $480
  • British Airways and Flying Blue are the cheapest direct options at 25k each way. Total: 200k + $300

If you really value direct flights, take the Aerolineas Argentinas flight one direction for 25k Flying Blue miles and return on the American Airlines flight for 25k Avios.

If you really value the cheapest flights or want a free stopover in Panama, look for Copa flights for 43k ANA miles.

Recap

Membership Rewards have awesome versatility, which also means it’s more work to figure out the best deal. For a simple Miami to Buenos Aires roundtrip, all three alliances are possibilities.

Because some transfer partners have region-based charts, some have distance-based charts, some charge fuel surcharges sometimes, and some never do, you have to investigate every option for the best deal.

For Buenos Aires to Miami roundtrip, the best deals are with ANA miles on Copa to take advantage of the distance-based chart of a combination of Flying Blue miles and Avios to take advantage of their partners’ direct flights.

→ 8 Comments

Posted in AAdvantage, Aerolineas Argentinas, Air France, American Express, ANA, Avios, Award Booking, Best Of, Delta, ExpertFlyer, Flying Blue, LAN, Membership Rewards

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Starwood Cash & Points Strategy

Posted on March 25, 2013 by | 9 Comments

Starwood Preferred Guest’s Cash & Points redemptions are some of the best values in travel. While most hotel points are worth a fraction of a cent and dropping, SPG Cash & Points redemptions can get 2, 3, or even more cents of value from Starpoints.

Cash & Points stays are not pure awards where you use points for a free room. Instead, they are awards where you combine (as the name suggests) some cash with fewer points than you would ordinarily need for a free night–stretching your cash and points farther. Also, unlike free night awards, Cash & Points awards are capacity controlled.

That means, kind of like airline awards, you need to search for space and be flexible to use Cash & Points awards.

Three weeks ago, Starwood increased the cash and points prices of Cash & Points awards. At the time, Starwood claimed there would be an increase in the availability of the awards. Ben and Summer have weighed in, saying they have found increased availability. And I agree. Availability has improved dramatically.

Here’s the new Cash & Points chart.

 

 

Where’s the best value?

That depends on your hotel preferences. If you want opulence, and you’d otherwise pay $500 or more per night, then the top tiers might have real value.

If you’re like me–and you like very cheap accommodation–then the best value will be at the bottom tiers–1,500 points and $30 is pretty incredible for four walls and a roof.

Searching for Space

Cash & Points space is capacity controlled. You can search for it on SPG.com here.

These search results are a little messy, though, so I prefer to use the Wandering Aramean’s search tool.

I did several searches for the same July weekend in cities throughout the world, and I found great Cash & Points availability.

New York, image from http://www.wandr.me/SPG-Award-Search.aspx/

Buenos Aires, image from http://www.wandr.me/SPG-Award-Search.aspx/

 

Rome, image from http://www.wandr.me/SPG-Award-Search.aspx/

Let’s look at some of the Los Angeles properties, which are available the same weekend.

The Sheraton Downtown wants $349 per night plus tax or 5,000 Starpoints plus $75 plus tax.

That works out to more than 5.5 cents per point in value from each Starpoint since 5,000 points would save $274 plus tax per night.

The other hotels have less of an eye popping cents per point value. The Sheraton in Anaheim is also a Category 4 that costs 5,000 points and $75.

But since it only costs $209, the cents per point on the Cash & Points redemption is around 2.8 cents.

Sheraton Ontario is a Category 2, so it only costs 2,000 points and $35.

But it only retails for $79 per night, so the 2,000 Starpoints only save about 2.2 cents each (and a 3,000 point Free Night Award is a better deal.)

Cash & Points Value

From Cash & Points awards, you should always be able to exceed two cents in value per point. Even on “bad” redemptions like the Sheraton Ontario, we can get more than 2 cents per point. And on some phenomenal redemptions, we can get 5 cents or more per point.

Cash & Points awards still remain the best use of Starpoints. The second best use remains transferring Starpoints to airline partners like US Airways, American Airlines, and Delta in increments of 20,000 to receive 5,000 mile bonuses.

The average value you can get from Cash & Points awards, even if you don’t value hotels at their retail rate should be over 2.5 cents per Starpoint.

Load Up On Starpoints

The Starwoord Preferred Guest from American Express earns 25,000 bonus Starpoints after spending $5,000 in the first six months. Those 30,000 Starpoints can be used for up to twenty Cash & Points award nights. Even at a conservative 2.5 cents per point estimate, 30,000 Starpoints are worth $750.

Because the SPG American Express earns one Starpoint per dollar, and because Starpoints are more valuable than any other type of point or mile, this is one of the best cards to put everyday spending (that doesn’t fall into other cards’ bonus categories) on.

The card has no annual fee the first year, and $65 thereafter.

Application Link: Starwoord Preferred Guest from American Express

Recap

Starwood has increased the amount of cash and points needed for Cash & Points awards, but they’ve simultaneously increased the number of hotel rooms made available for such awards.

Cash & Points awards remain the best use for Starpoints–delivering 2-5+ cents of value per point, and the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express remains the best way to stock up on Starpoints.

→ 9 Comments

Posted in American Express, SPG

Tagged ,

Spring Break 2013! A Proposed 26,000 Mile Journey

Posted on March 24, 2013 by | 25 Comments

As many of you may know, I am a college student by day and the amusing, yet mystical, Bengali Miles Guru by night. After traveling almost 100,000 miles since January, I knew that my upcoming spring break trip would have to be amazing. It would also have to help me attain my 12 months, 12 countries goal.

After giving it some thought, the best idea was to include my friends into the crazy trip I’m about to embark on.

Introduction:

I didn’t know where to go but naturally, I thought that maybe it should be Europe since I just flew to Asia a month ago. I set my sights on a Eurotrip themed adventure! I knew that it would have to be awesome and that my friends would have to be amused as well. I finally settled on this proposed route plan:

Los Angeles-Frankfurt

1 night in Frankfurt (Hotwire a Hotel)

Drive to Amsterdam

2 nights in Amsterdam (Radisson Blu Amsterdam)

Drive to Paris

2 nights in Paris (Radisson Blu Champs Elysees & Radisson Blu Le Dokhan’s Hotel)

Drive back to Frankfurt and visit cities a long the way.

Frankfurt- Los Angeles

Last time I drove in Germany, we somehow got this car:

The hotels alone were an absolute wonder to book. In Frankfurt & Amsterdam, I resorted to Hotwire and was able to get great rates that were sub $100 per night! The best feeling was going to hotels.com and seeing that the Radisson Blu Amsterdam was $296 on the nights I wanted to go. I got the same hotel on Hotwire for $86 plus tax!

In Paris, I elected to use my Club Carlson points to book two nights at two different hotels since we have a lot of people going. I was able to use the free bonus night stay that comes with the Club Carlson card and for 100,000 points, I got 2 rooms in Paris for 2 nights each (4 nights total for the price of 2)

In Paris, the hotel prices were about 330-430 Euros/Night depending on the hotels so I think I got great value from those points! (2.1 Cents)

It proved to be a stellar trip but I yearned for more, and that’s exactly what I got.

After booking my friends on a LAX-ATL-FRA-ORD-LAX flight (in Business Class because, you know, college students need to travel in style) for 100,000 miles, I looked into my own flights. Sure, I was going to all these cool places with my friends but I also wanted to make a great Trip Report out of it. I also wanted to get the most value out of my mile. ;)  

I sat down and thought about other routes till I could think no more. I came up with this masterpiece:

Los Angeles-Frankfurt in Lufthansa Business Class (A330) Part of US Airways 90K US-Europe-Asia

My parents modeling the Lufthansa Business Class seats

Paris-Kuala Lumpur  in Malaysian First Class (A380) 105,000 Amex-British Air Points

Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok in Lufthansa First Class (Yes, it’s not wrong) United 70K First Class Award. Picture could change based on flight availability.

Bangkok-Hong Kong in Thai First Class (A380) United 70K First Class Award

Hong Kong-Frankfurt (Lufthansa 747-8i 70K United Award)

Frankfurt-Los Angeles (Lufthansa First Class 70K Award)

My Proposed Trip

To make things more complicated, I used a 90k US Airways redemption to go US-Europe-Asia. I scheduled Europe-Asia as a later trip in September so technically, I end in Europe for now. I then transferred some Membership Rewards to get myself on the Malaysian Airlines A380 from Paris-KUL. I was never supposed to come back to Europe from Malaysia but I realized my flight wouldn’t make it in time to take a free ticket I had from Singapore-Los Angeles. That’s when I dipped into my United Miles to book a return from Asia-Los Angeles.

The Total Costs:

90,000 US Airways miles & $200 in Taxes

105,000 American Express Membership Rewards & $1,000 in Taxes

70,000 United miles & 100 in Taxes

The best part of this trip is that I get to test out a bunch of new products and hopefully report them back to you guys!

Some interesting tidbits about this trip include:

Kuala Lumpur – Bangkok is actually operated by Lufthansa. It is part of their Bangkok – Frankfurt flight so it goes KUL-BKK-FRA.

Overall, this trip should be fun for me and terrifying for my mom who will probably be worrying a little too much.

By flying this route, I’ll be at 4 different A380 First Class cabins in less than 3 months of each other! I’ve already flown Lufthansa & Singapore! Adding Malaysian & Thai to the mix will only leave me with Emirates, Korean Air, Air France, China Southern, & Qantas. I am most interested in flying Emirates and China Southern’ A380s in the future!

If you don’t see me on one of these flights in the upcoming days, you’ll surely see me at FTU DC in a few weeks! Hope to meet you all! You can also follow this trip on Instagram with the hashtag #flywithbmg.

Also, if you like what you see, use our Award Booking Service to build a trip like this! We’ve helped tons of people book trips of a lifetime!

→ 25 Comments

Posted in American Express, Anatomy of an Award, Avios, Award Booking, BengaliMilesGuru, Malaysia Airlines, Membership Rewards, Star Alliance, Travel Style, Trip Report, Uncategorized, United

The Best Credit Cards for Ultra-Low Spenders

Posted on March 21, 2013 by | 7 Comments

Occasionally I am asked for advice on which credit cards to get for ultra-low spenders. Can they really get a free trip in the new era of minimum spending requirements to unlock credit card bonuses?

Here is a representative example of how someone who spends less than $1,000 per month on cards can earn a free trip to Europe with leftover points for free hotels or his next free trip! The answer is the little-talked-about Delta SkyMiles cards. They don’t offer as big of a headline bonus as some other cards, but their low spending requirements put them within everyone’s reach.

Steele asks:

I spend about $500 to $700 per month on cards. What cards can I get for an upcoming trip to Europe?

Spending under $1,000 per month on credit cards, while generally a virtue, is becoming a big liability when trying to earn free travel because more and more cards are forcing us to meet minimum spending requirements to unlock the sign up bonuses. We have to find some cards with ultra-low or zero minimum spending requirements for Steele. Or we have to look at manufacturing spending–putting more dollars on credit cards without spending more out of pocket.

The next thing is getting to Europe. We need miles that can do that effectively.

For Steele, I would recommend getting the Delta personal and business cards from American Express. The offers are almost identical.

The Gold Delta SkyMiles Card from American Express comes with 30,000 bonus Delta miles after $500 in purchases in the first three months. This is one of the older tiny minimum spending requirements that are becoming less common.

Like many airline cards, the cardholder gets a free checked bag, but Delta’s version of the benefit is the most generous. You get a free checked bag for you and up to eight companions on paid Delta flights booked with the card. This benefit could easily stretch into hundreds of dollars saved per year for families–or very little saved for one baggers like me.

The card comes with Zone 1 Boarding, meaning your carry on will find bin space instead of being involuntarily gate checked.

The card earns one SkyMile per dollar on all spending plus 2 per dollar on Delta purchases. And if you have to buy something onboard a Delta flight, you get a 20% discount.

There is no annual fee the first year, then $95 thereafter.

Application Link: Gold Delta SkyMiles Card from American Express with 30,000 bonus SkyMiles

The Gold Delta SkyMiles Business Card from American Express Open comes with an identical offer plus one thing.

In addition to the 30,000 bonus Delta miles after $500 in purchases in the first three months and all the other benefits, the business card is automatically enrolled in the American Express OPEN Program. Using the business card at certain hotels, rental car agencies, office supply stores, business logistics stores, and other businesses earns an automatic discount of up to 10%.

For more information about OPEN, see The OPEN Savings Benefit Page.

Application Link: Gold Delta SkyMiles Business Card from American Express Open with 30,000 bonus SkyMiles

If Steele got both cards, he’d only have to spend $1,000 total in three months to unlock 60,000 bonus SkyMiles–well within his spending ability and enough for a roundtrip ticket to Europe.

While I generally am not a huge fan of SkyMiles, they work really well for economy class to Europe as Delta’s partners Alitalia, KLM, and Air France all release a good amount of economy award space and fly to a lot of destinations within the US and all over Europe.

Recap

There’s no reason why ultra-low spenders who put less than $1,000 per month on credit cards can’t quickly generate 100,000 or more miles and points for a trip to Europe with Ultimate Rewards left over for your hotels or next trip.

Application Link: Gold Delta SkyMiles Card from American Express with 30,000 bonus SkyMiles

Application Link: Gold Delta SkyMiles Business Card from American Express Open with 30,000 bonus SkyMiles

→ 7 Comments

Posted in American Express

Tagged

Get the Most Out of Your American Express Platinum Card

Posted on March 18, 2013 by | 20 Comments

The American Express Platinum cards come with annual fees of at least $450 (unless you use the link the Bengali Miles Guru found.) But they also come with a litany of valuable benefits worth more than $450.

Unfortunately none of those benefits are automatic. In order to get the most out of the card, you need to spend a little time signing up for each one.

All American Express Platinum cards receive the following benefits. The three main ones to consider are:

The Platinum Card from American Express (personal) with 25k Membership Rewards after $2,000 in purchases in the first three months.

The Business Platinum Card from American Express OPEN (business) with 25k Membership Rewards after $5,000 in purchases in the first three months.

The Platinum Card from American Express Exclusively for Mercedes-Benz (personal) with 50k Membership Rewards after $1,000 in purchases in the first three months.

The Mercedes-Benz Platinum and “regular” personal Platinum are considered different cards, so you can get one then the other. The Business Platinum is one of the best current business card offers from American Express and pairs well with a personal AMEX card during app-o-ramas.

$500 in Free Statement Credits

$200 ($400) Airline Fee Credits

Platinum cards come with a $200 airline fee credit each calendar year. That means in almost everyone’s first year of holding a Platinum card, you can get $400 worth of airline fees credited back to your card.

For instance, I got my Mercedes-Benz Platinum (personal) card in February 2013, so I will take advantage of this benefit in 2013 and January 2014 for $400 in statement credits.

The airline fee credit is supposed to be for fees likes change fees, cancellation fees, and bag fees. The fee credit is not supposed to apply to ticket purchases, miles purchases, or gift card purchases.

But American Express’s computers decides whether a certain purchase qualifies for a fee credit, and in the experience of thousands of people, certain airline gift card purchases will result in a statement credit. That makes this benefit like getting $400 in free flights, which almost completely offsets the annual fee in one swoop.

In order to get the $200 airline fee credit, you have to choose a single airline on which you will receive credits for fees incurred. I decided to designate American Airlines as my airline to receive fee credits in hopes of purchasing gift cards that I can then use to book flights on AA. Designating your airline is as simple as picking up the phone and calling the 800-number on the back of your Platinum card.

I called the number and had to listen to a menu of options. Rather than doing this, simply press “0″ in order to speak to an operator. I told the woman who answered the phone that I was calling in order to designate an airline for my fee credits, and she put me down for American. She did say that it can take time for the fees to be credited back to your account, and to feel free to call back if I had a fee that I wanted to dispute.

I plan on buying two $100 American Airlines gift certificates soon and two more in January 2014. The latest reports on FlyerTalk are that these purchases are generating a corresponding credit within two weeks. Where should I go with me $400 in free AA flights?

$100 Global Entry Fee Credit

Platinum card holders are entitled to a $100 statement credit when they pay the $100 Global Entry enrollment fee with their Platinum cards.

Having Global Entry allows you to skip the immigrations and customs queues when arriving in the US. Instead of spending time in line and talking to an agent, you tap a few buttons at a kiosk and get to the curb in a few minutes. Global Entry membership is valid for 5 years. Scott raves about it. And having Global Entry also lets you skip immigration queues in Australia and New Zealand.

There are two steps involved in obtaining Global entry: an application and an interview.

First, you need to fill out the online application.  To do this as efficiently as possible, make sure you have on hand: Proof of Citizenship documents (I just used my passport); your driver’s license, if you have one; and both your address and work histories for the past five years. The online application process took me about 30 minutes to complete.

If you have never registered with GOES (the Global Online Entry System), you will be prompted to register when you click the online application link above.

Once you are registered with GOES, log in to the system. You will see that you are not a member of any programs. Click “Enroll in a New Program” to begin your Global Entry application.

Select the link that allows you to start the application for the trusted traveler program.

From here, you will have to fill out a variety of personal information. There are 16 categories of information.

Fill out all the sections and submit your application. You will be prompted to pay the $100 application fee–make sure you use your new Platinum AMEX to pay this in order to have the fee credited back to you!

Unfortunately, the GOES system doesn’t email you when your application is approved or denied. I set a reminder in my calendar to check on the status of my application in a week. Once your application is approved, you can use the GOES system to schedule your in-person interview, which will take place at any airport that participates in the Global Entry program.

Free Lounge Access

You can get free lounge access at US Airways Clubs, American Airlines Admirals Clubs, and Delta Sky Clubs by showing your American Express Platinum Card and boarding pass–no set up required! I took advantage on a recent trip from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires, enjoying drinks, a comfortable place to sit, and free wifi at the American Airlines lounges along the way.

You can get even better lounge coverage–especially internationally–by signing up for a free Priority Pass Select membership to complement the automatic free lounge access.

Priority Pass Select

Priority Pass is the world’s largest independent airport lounge access program. Platinum Card holders get free Priority Pass Select membership, which entitles them to free access to hundreds of lounges worldwide (everything on the list except United Clubs).

Signing up for Priority Pass Select is easy. I did it on the same call as setting up my airline fee credits. After designating AA as my airline to receive fee credits on, I asked the agent if she could enroll me in the Priority Pass Select program. It literally took her 10 seconds to enroll me. I received my shiny black and gold Priority Pass card in the mail only 5 days after I called.

This card has to be shown and swiped at participating Priority Pass Select lounges. I downloaded the app on my phone, so I can search for participating lounges by airport while I travel.

There’s more information about this benefit here.

Starwood Preferred Guest Gold Status

Platinum Card holders are entitled to free Gold status in the Starwood Preferred Guest program. Gold status will entitle me to late checkout, free internet, and other benefits on any stays at a Sheraton, W, Westin, Four Points, and other hotel brands.

Not only did I not have Starwood Preferred Guest Status, but I wasn’t even enrolled in the Starwood Preferred Guest program when I called AMEX to set up my Platinum benefits. After enrolling in Priority Pass, I asked the agent about getting SPG Gold, expecting that I would have to go online and dig around in order to do this. I was pleased when she simply transferred me to a Starwood agent. Since I did not already have an account with Starwood, the agent took down my information and promptly enrolled me.

I got an email from SPG with my account number, and when I set up my account online, I had Gold status.

I expect to get the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express on my next app-o-rama, so having Gold status for the stays I take with those points will be a real plus.

Recap

The American Express Platinum cards come with big annual fees, but even bigger benefits. The benefits require a little bit of work to set up: a phone call, some gift card purchases, and a Global Entry application. But setting up and enjoying your benefits is easy–even for a Rookie.

Call American Express at the number on the back of your AMEX card:

  1. Designate an airline to receive your $200 annual (calendar year) airline fee credit.
  2. Ask to be enrolled in Priority Pass Select.
  3. Ask to be given Gold status in Starwood Preferred Guest (and enrolled in SPG if necessary). You will be transferred to SPG.

Buy gift cards with your AMEX Platinum on the airline you designated that will be reimbursed by the airline fee credit. Then use those gift cards for free flights.

Apply for Global Entry, paying the fee with your AMEX Platinum. Then enjoy plane-to-curb times under ten minutes on international flights.

There are even more benefits of holding a Platinum Card–many more than would fit here, and most of little use for the majority of people. For a complete list including benefits at Neiman Marcus, Equinox Fitness Clubs, car rental agencies, and more, see here.

Bonus

For me, a ten minute phone call was the easier way to enroll in these benefits. If you prefer not to speak to an agent, you can enroll for most benefits online here.

Application Links

The Platinum Card from American Express (personal) with 25k Membership Rewards after $2,000 in purchases in the first three months.

The Business Platinum Card from American Express OPEN (business) with 25k Membership Rewards after $5,000 in purchases in the first three months.

The Platinum Card from American Express Exclusively for Mercedes-Benz (personal) with 50k Membership Rewards after $1,000 in purchases in the first three months.

→ 20 Comments

Posted in American Express, Best Of, Membership Rewards

Tagged , ,

Free Oneway Principles on ANA Awards

Posted on March 8, 2013 by | 37 Comments

Update at 9:31 AM ET on 3/8/13. Disregard most of this post. Commentor Angel pointed out trouble getting ANA to price this, and I found the problem. ANA rule: “The departure airport and the final destination on the itinerary may differ, but must be in the same country.” I’ll try to figure out a way to salvage some of this idea.

Yesterday I was effusive about the fact that ANA–a Japanese airlines most of us have never flown–stopped charging fuel surcharges on United and US Airways flights booked with ANA miles. I called it the deal of the month on twitter.

The value comes from ANA’s awesome distance based chart and the fact that it is a Membership Rewards transfer partner.

But I wanted to give some tips to get insane value out of ANA awards using free oneway principles.

The key principle of all free oneways is a stopover at your home airport. By stopping over at your home airport, you can get 1.5 trips out of what the airline thinks is only one trip. (And if the airline thinks it’s one trip, it only charges you for one trip.)

ANA has stopover rules that are liberal and strict at once. The liberal part is that you can have four stopovers on one award! But you can’t have any stopovers in your country of origin, you can only have two in Europe, and holes in your itinerary count as a stopover at both cities!

(The example ANA’s site gives is Tokyo to Frankfurt to Munich, returning after an open jaw from Frankfurt to Tokyo. The open jaw between Frankfurt and Munich counts as a stop in both, so you can’t get a stopover in Frankfurt en route from Tokyo to Munich.)

So how can we apply the free oneway principle of a stopover at our home airport when ANA prohibits stopovers in the country of origin? Easy. Add half of a trip on to the beginning of our main award, thus changing our country of origin.

Let me give an easy example. If you live in Newark and want to fly roundtrip in business class to Paris on United with ANA miles, you’d already get a great deal. The roundtrip is 7,298 miles, so the award would cost 68,000 ANA miles.

This is of course, a steep discount on how many miles United or US Airways would charge–100,000.

But here’s where my trick of adding a prior leg comes in. Add in a oneway from Lima to Newark four months before, and you’ve got the return half of a second trip on the same award. (How do you get to Lima? One way award, cash ticket, walk.)

Now the distance of the award increases substantially to 10,929 miles.

But that’s only one band higher up on the chart, so the mileage price only increases to 85,000. This is remarkable since Lima to Newark–in flat bed business class–is only adding 17,000 miles!

Of course, I can hardly say I’ve maximized the itinerary. You can take two stops in Europe after all.

Here’s a possibility: add Lima to Newark onto an award from Newark to London to Istanbul to Newark with stops in London and Istanbul.

This award traverses 13,690 miles, which is another band higher up. It would cost only 90,000 ANA miles total in business class! (Note that London to Istanbul would be on Turkish Airlines, so you would be on the hook for a modest fuel surcharge for flying a carrier other than United and US Airways intra-Europe.)

There’s nothing special about living in Newark or having every section of the trip be direct. Imagine you want to add the return half of trip to Santiago onto a trip to Tokyo, and you live in Los Angeles. Let’s even throw in a free stopover in Hawaii on the way to Japan.

That 17,850 mile trip would cost only 105,000 ANA miles in business class, which is spectacular since LAX to Tokyo roundtrip is 120,000 United miles and Santiago to LAX would be another 50,000 miles.

That means using Membership Rewards transferred to ANA miles saves 65,000 points!

So far all my examples presuppose a major international hub for United as your home airport. We’re not all so lucky. Living at a hub helps because it means fewer flights, and every flight adds to the cost of an ANA award.

But you don’t have to live at a United or US Airways hub to maximize ANA awards. I’ll give an example for the home airport of Medford, Oregon, which only features two United flights–to Denver and San Francisco.

This award has a return from Sydney to Medford, then a roundtrip to London.

Normally in business class Sydney to Medford would be 67,500, and a roundtrip from Medford to Londond would be 100,000 more. But instead of 167,500 United miles, this itinerary would cost 115,000 ANA miles.

Can you put the oneway after the roundtrip?

No. Imagine reversing the first example. Newark to Paris roundtrip then Newark to Lima. You’ve stopped over in Newark, which is in the origin country. ANA prohibits stopovers in the origin country.

Are these free oneways?

No, the oneways are all adding a bit to the miles price since they are increasing the number of miles flown on the award. There are probably free oneway opportunities to Mexico or the Caribbean. Post them in the comments.

Is this a big deal?

Yes! I already had Membership Rewards worth more than United miles. Now they may be worth more than Ultimate Rewards! If that sounds crazy, let me explain.

United has a great business class bed and releases a great amount of award space. It has a route map that covers most of the places I want to go. Using the techniques in this post, you can use about 1/3 fewer Membership Rewards to book United business itineraries than the number of Ultimate Rewards it would take.

My Plan

I’m going to open the The Business Platinum Card with a 25,000 Membership Rewards sign up bonus to pad my Membership Rewards balance.

I’ve already had the Mercedes-Benz personal Platinum, and the “regular” personal Platinum has a sign up bonus that’s below where I’ve often seen it in the past.

Recap

Booking 1.5 trips with the half trip first unlocks incredible savings on ANA awards that fly United or US Airways.

Full ANA Award Rules

→ 37 Comments

Posted in American Express, ANA, Award Booking, Best Of, Free Oneway, Membership Rewards, United, US Airways

Tagged , , , ,